A Saudi teenager living in Germany is campaigning to have developers approve a "hijab emoji" that would represent women wearing the headscarf.
Rayouf al-Humedhi approched a non-profit corporation that reviews and develops new emojis called the Unicode Consortium who responded to her suggestions by offering to help her draft a formal proposal.
"We applaud Unicode for the diversification of emojis in recent years," she wrote in her seven-page proposal draft.
"However, this does not mean it should stop now. With the amount of difference in this world, we must be represented."
Her idea has won the support of Reddit co-founder Alexis Ohanian, as well as social media users from around the world.
Humedhi, who wears the hijab, came up with the idea when her friends wanted to identify themselves to one another in a WhatsApp group chat by using unique emojis instead of their names.
However, the 15 year student could not find an emoji to represent her.
"I wanted something to represent me, alongside the millions of women who wear the headscarf every day, and pride themselves on wearing the headscarf," she told The Washington Post.
Humedi added that the emoji could also represent Orthodox Jews and Christians who wear different forms of headscarves and hopes the emoji would "promote diversity and tolerance".
